Laser Shot to the Retina

Via Slashdot on Virtual Retina Displays from UW, potentially the future of displays for small devices (and aren't they all going to be small?)...

Furness is exploring a method to simplify the VRD and help bring costs down. His latest design dispenses with the mirror entirely. Instead, the tip of a single fiber-optic strand is pointed at the retina and mechanically bent back and forth at very high rates. Essentially, you're staring right down the beam instead of at its reflection. The stripped-down scanner, he says, may not only be less expensive to produce but also paints a prettier picture.

"We could make the image as big as we want and display a huge gamut of a colors," Furness says. "It would be like wearing an IMAX theater in a pair of eyeglasses."